Home Learn | Edution Center TMG Newsletter - October 2008 What you need to know about setting up a wireless network
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TMG Newsletter
At The Moonlighting Group, part of our mission is providing education. To this end we publish a regular newsletter that captures the answers to questions received and information on important technical topics from "What is SEO?" to "How do I setup a wireless network?"Posted on October 29, 2008
by John Flynn More
What you need to know about setting up a wireless network
Setting up a wireless network is easy. Just buy a $50 wireless router from one of the popular consumer brands; Linksys, D-Link, Netgear. Out of the box, wireless connectivity is turned on. With a laptop or desktop computer enabled with a wireless antenna, most computers will automatically find the wireless signal and connect to your new wireless network. Easy, right?

Yes, it is easy for you to connect, but it is also easy for anyone within 75-100 feet. Just as you would not let just anyone connect to your wired network, you would not want to let just anyone connect to your wireless network. Today's newest routers have more built-insecurity features, but most of them are disabled out of the box to facilitate a novice's setup.

I guess before jumping into the "right" way to setup a wireless network we should ask the question, "Do you need a wireless setup?" Whenever possible a wired network is always preferred. Wired will always be faster, safer, and cheaper.

Reasons for setting up a wireless network:

* Need to work in multiple locations within a small area
* Need access for more computers than the wired network currently allows
* Aesthetically looks better without wires
* Cannot run wires to where you want your computer
There a few accepted conventions for setting up a more secure wireless network.

1) Decide how important is it to secure your wired users from your wireless users. In my office we have 2 networks setup: wired and wireless. The wireless network cannot connect to the wired network, yet they share the same internet connection. This would be important for securing personal or business data from possible wireless security threats.

2) What type of wireless security will you use? This is dependent on the computers connecting wireless to your network. If they have the most current setup of wireless security enabled devices, you will be able to setup WEP or WPA. These acronyms don't mean much other than you will need to know the "code" in order to connect to the wireless network. How secure you want your network to be will determine how often you will change the code, how long the code is, and how random the characters of the code are.

3) The number one thing you can do to protect your wireless connection and network security in general is to change the name of your router, turn off the SSID broadcast, and change the administrative password.